AN ACCOUNTING IN PERU

Answers are due in death of missionary and her child

The downing of a missionary plane in Peru and deaths of a woman and
infant with West Michigan ties raise troubling questions about
America's drug-fighting efforts beyond our own borders.

President Bush was right to halt American drug interdiction in the
South American country. Now, Mr. Bush and Congress should ask probing
questions about the U.S. role in the affair. A country of laws and due
process should look with a skeptical eye on the shoot-first-ask-questions-later
policies that seem to have governed our drug war alliance with Peru.

The incident last Friday involved a plane from the Association of
Baptists for World Evangelism, a Pennsylvania-based missionary group.
The single-engine Cessna 185 was returning from Brazil, and had flown
across a corner of Colombia into Peru. Central Intelligence Agency
officials in a surveillance plane in the region identified it as
possibly ferrying narcotics and notified Peruvian authorities. The
Peruvians launched a jet and shot at the Cessna, killing 35-year-old
Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, Charity. Ms. Bowers'
husband, Muskegon native Jim Bowers, their 6-year-old son, Cory, and
pilot Kevin Donaldson survived a crash-landing in the Amazon River.

The tragedy, which made international headlines, hit West Michigan
particularly hard. The Bowers received much of their support from
Calvary Church in Fruitport and considered this area home base for
their mission work. The funeral is scheduled for Friday at the church.

Since the incident, American officials have pointed a finger at Peru's
air force, claiming that it failed to follow detailed procedures for
identifying drug-trafficking planes before shooting at them. The CIA
repeatedly warned the Peruvian fliers that they were moving too
quickly toward an armed response, according to government officials.
The CIA plane reportedly contacted agency officials in Lima asking
that the shoot-down be stopped.

Certainly, Peruvian procedures need to be reviewed, and officials
there should be held accountable for their part in the incident. But
the CIA should bear scrutiny, too.

In past Peruvian drug interdictions, the agency has routinely tried to
obtain a suspected plane's registration number before a military jet
is ordered into the air. That didn't happen in this case, according to
news reports. If that's true, the CIA's initial blunder set up the
chain of events that led to the death of Mrs. Bowers and her child.

The agency acted because it was told the plane had not filed a flight
plan. Pilot Donaldson claims to have filed a plan by fax before the
trip. In fact, such a document is posted on the missionary
organization's Web site. Did the document not make it to Peruvian
aviation officials? Why not? If they had it, why couldn't they locate
it when asked for it by the CIA?

Once the CIA alerted the Peruvian pilot, he was supposed to identify
the plane visually, attempt to make radio contact, try to force it to
land and fire warning shots before training his guns on the plane.
Peruvian authorities claim to have followed these procedures. Mr.
Donaldson has said radio and visual contact never took place, nor were
warning shots ever fired. Sorting through these discrepancies will
take time. But there is disturbing evidence that these drug-fighting
efforts have been conducted with cowboy-like disregard for the safety
of innocents.

Since 1995, Peru's air force has shot down or strafed 30 aircraft
believed to be carrying narcotics. America has had serious qualms
about cooperating with Peru in the past. In 1994, the United States
suspended its cooperation with Peru for six months, concerned that
Peruvian practices could lead to the killing of innocent people.

Before the current program began seven years ago through an
authorization by Congress, an American airman lost his life when a
Peruvian jet fired at a U.S. military transport.

That track record makes it all the more urgent that Congress demand
answers. U.S. Rep. Peter Hoeksta, R-Holland, whose district includes
the church that supported the missionary family and who sits on the
House Select Committee on Intelligence, should be at the forefront of
those demanding an accounting.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed
Services Committee, should take an active role as well. Past incidents
of trigger-happy Peruvian pilots need to be explored, as does the
CIA's role in drug interdiction operations in South America.

The joint interdiction program has proven successful on one count,
according to intelligence officials. Since it began, coca production
has dropped by two-thirds in Peru. That's promising news in the effort
to stop the flow of drugs into this country. But until that success
can be combined with safety for people like the Bowers family and the
promise of a careful and judicious use of force, the program should
remain suspended.